Don't Talk to Strangers
by Jenna Duck
Summary: Lucina was hunting alone at the carnival, but this didn't bother her. Not until a strange woman convinced her it should. This tale fits in between Let in the Night and The Reading Request by cheshiredreams.


Disclaimer: While Lucina is all mine, I don't own the World of Darkness, Vampire: the Requiem, The Paper Dolls bloodline, or Seshie. The first two belong to White Wolf, and the third to Tenebras. Thanks for letting us play.

A/N: Seshie is the property of my wonderful beta and RP buddy, cheshiredreams. I couldn't have written this story without her input on the dialogue. Don't Talk to Strangers is a one-shot from the same story arc as her collection. I highly reccomend reading them to give you a bigger look into the world we've created. This tale fits in between "Let in the Night" and "The Reading Request" by cheshiredreams. I hope you enjoy it.

Don't Talk to Strangers

It was a summer of blue black nights. For weeks now, every night had been clear and crisp, with a thousand stars glittering over the city of Marseilles. She could hardly remember what the city had looked like during the day, let alone the glory of the sunrise. She knew that they must be beautiful with the weather like this, and it saddened her to think that she could never see them again. But that sadness was brief in comparison to the joy of waking every evening alongside her siblings. She had the brother and sisters she'd always wanted, and she reveled in it.

The festival had come again, the lights of the carnival rides and the showmen eclipsing the natural brilliance of the stars above her head. Tonight she had gone out with her brother, walking amongst the human children with the same excitement as they. Simple pleasures, the stuff childhood was made of, but hers for all eternity. She snuck into the fun house, but was disappointed with the mirrors that would no longer show her distorted reflection. Raphael had told her it wouldn't be the same, but she didn't listen. Perhaps she had known that he spoke the truth, and didn't want to believe it.

Abandoning the fun house, she wondered as she had not for two years what had happened to her parents. It was a night very like this one that she became on of the Papers, leaving them and her old life behind. She missed them, missed having an adult to look up to. She longed for the feeling of being loved when her father tucked her into bed, for the sound of her mother singing her native folk songs as she made breakfast. She even missed being told to eat her vegetables.

They were like the lost boys, with no grown ups to order them around, and never aging past childhood. Yet she knew her siblings missed their parents, even as they knew how she longed for hers. Nancy, oldest of them all, told them that she would be their mother, yet she was still as much a child in mind and temperament as they. The Prince of the city accepted them into his court, honored and adored them, but he was not family. To him, they were a curiosity, an abomination that should never have happened, but one that he hadn't the heart to destroy.

She looked around, suddenly realizing that she was the only child in sight. On tiptoes, she searched in vain for a sight of the blonde heads of her siblings amongst the towering figures of adults. She was hungry, but wanted to find her sisters. For over an hour she searched, but eventually came to the conclusion that they and Raphael had gone back to the haven of the court, leaving her to hunt alone.

Muttering childish curses under her breath, she wandered slowly over to an out of the way bench. Beginning to sniffle, she curled up upon it and ducked her head, lest her lack of tears – or worse, a blood streaked face – frighten her prey. Soon she felt a weight settle beside her and inwardly smiled. How gullible adult kine were, and how predictable! A pity this one probably wouldn't live to learn the one lesson all children know.

"Oh, a little one! It is lost, yes? Such a curious thing, to be so young! Do tell Seshie why she cries, " an oddly accented, feminine voice cooned.

She turned on all of her Charm and rubbed her cheeks as if scrubbing away tears. Looking up at the woman, green eyes suddenly widened in shock. This was no mortal! She fought the immediate urge to run away, but still flinched back when the other tried to pet her hair.

The woman – Seshie? – frowned when she pulled away. The girl sighed, realizing she'd hurt the kindred's feelings. Watching her silently, she realized what was confusing her. The woman acted like what her mother used to call a "moon child." But why would anyone embrace someone like that?

Finally she smiled timidly. "Seshie? Is that your name?" At the woman's enthusiastic nod, she continued, "I was hunting."

Seshie grinned. "Ah, we perceive it now! The beautiful little doll cries and a foolish mortal comes to comfort the angel. Such planning from one so small! But it _is_ all alone, and much to young.." The woman trailed off, frowning faintly as she again reached out to play with the girl's hair. "It should come with Seshie. She shall care for her, feed her, comfort her... Vile Asher could not say 'no' to such a pretty pet!"

She shook her head, Seshie sounded like she was describing a dog, and who was this Asher? "Thank you kindly, Madam, I'm sure, but I have to return to my family. My sisters are surely worried about me by now," the child said carefully.

Seshie looked at her with pity in her eyes. "Family? Sisters? But she has no family! Look, dear little one. Look around. Does she see her family anywhere around this disgusting place? Gone, all gone from the dear child. They have left one so innocent, so sweet, behind."

"Gone? What do you mean, they can't be gone!" she replied angrily.

"Oh, but they are! Left by itself in this horrid, French city! With its horrid French Prince! They do not want her anymore. Gone. All gone… They have left their doll all alone. Poor little thing," the woman added, almost as an afterthought.

The youngster was dismayed, staring blankly at the elder kindred and the thinning crowds of kine as she realized that she had not seen any of the other Dollies since entering the fun house. Small shoulders started to shake and a silent, red tear rolled down her cheek.

"Why would they leave me?" she whispered in despair, looking up at Seshie through the red haze of tears.

"What horrid, mean kindred they are," the woman said softly, pulling the little girl into her arms. "Oh! But do not cry, little cherub! We shall take care of her. Seshie shall be her mother, and never leave you like they did. The cherub _will_ come with Seshie, yes? Where else shall the child go if she stays? With a mortal kine?"

The child whimpered, instincts from another life causing her arms to wrap tightly around the other's waist. Her tears flowed freely, staining the blouse her face was hidden in as Seshie stroked her hair comfortingly. It was the "cherub" that did it, the pet name that her father had always called her when comforting juvenile hurts. After several moments she nodded, wiping away the last of her tears as she sat up.

"It will like our haven, and insipid Asher shall care for the child much more than he does for poor, wicked Seshie," the woman murmured to her. "Oh! What is our little doll's name? Such a handsome face must have a handsome name, we think." Seshie smiled down at the child – **her** child – and gently tugged her to her feet.

"Lucina, my name is Lucina," she replied softly. Following Seshie into the night, she gazed up once more at the blue black sky. Yes, she had lost her siblings, but she had found a new mother – and just maybe, a new home.


End file.
